Tony Gemignani started spinning pizza dough when he was 17. Crowds at his brother’s pizzeria in Castro Valley, Calif., would watch in awe as he tossed dough 15-feet in the air, before seamlessly sliding it through his legs, across his shoulders and around his back like a basketball. He never dropped it.

“I loved it, and customers loved it,” said Gemignani.

Pizza acrobatics, sometimes called pizza freestyle or pizza tossing, has been around since the 1980s. The sport — it is actually considered a sport — involves tossing mounds of stretched pizza dough in the air, and performing jaw-dropping tricks with it. The dough seemingly defies gravity, launching straight in the air in perfect circular disks. Some acrobats can keep two pizzas twirling at a time.

International pizza makers — or “pizzaiolos” — travel from near and far to attend the yearly events. “Competitors from around the world all fly in and compete,” said Gemignani, who was born in Fremont, Calif., and has Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Native American roots. Athletes, as they’re called at the competitions, hail from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Morocco, Sweden, France, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and of course, Italy. They spend all year preparing and practicing their acrobatic acts.